What is Movie News After Dark? It’s the ketchup on your ice cream.
Good evening and welcome back! We’ll begin with a piece from film critic and feline advocate Scott Weinberg who’s compiled a list of the best foreign action films to hit our shores in the last few years. Prompted by a recent screening of festival darling The Raid, which should be assaulting American eyeballs in the next month or two, Weinberg runs down plenty of ass-kicking titles to feed your Netflix queue. Head on over to Movies.com for the full piece.
Sticking with list-making, the fine folks over at io9 have come up with a list of 10 things from the “Hunger Games” books that the movies probably can’t pull off. A fine idea for a piece, especially for those of us still trying to understand how “Hunger Games” is different from that Japanese movie we saw several years back. I kid, I’ve been assured there are plenty of differences, aside from, you know, the main plot and all. But in all honesty, the last trailer I saw looked great and Jennifer Lawrence is certainly flying high these days, so you can bet my butt will be firmly planted in a theater seat for a midnight showing of this one. Head over to io9 for the low down on what we may or may not see on screen on March 23rd!
We jump back over to Movies.com for Peter Hall’s interview with Drafthouse head honcho Tim League. The dynamic duo discuss Drafthouse Films and Bullhead, their first Oscar-nominated acquisition and how they go about picking films. It’s a great read as always so you should click through and read it now.
Speaking of League, the man himself recently did an hour long interview for a Google video series. The video is embedded below (hat tip to Mr. Erik Davis at Movies.com for writing this up) and is well worth it if you have the time.
Tim’s a busy man, and we’ll stay with him for one more story. The Alamo has already announced an expansion to the Denver, CO area and rumors of New York and LA Drafthouses have been flying for what seems like years. But apparently San Francisco is also in the cards, with the Alamo in the process of acquiring and restoring the historic New Mission theater. You can read the story straight from the horse’s mouth at the Alamo blog.
Apropos of nothing, Junkfood Cinema auteur Brian Salisbury and I just got back from a midnight showing of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. It was less than good. In happier news, be on the lookout for a new Junkfood Cinema to post later today, once again celebrating Blaxploitation History Month!
Twitter is a funny thing and with so many filmmakers and actors typing out their thoughts in 140 character bursts, it can sometimes be a source for news, strange as that seems. Remember that Indonesian action film, The Raid? Well it’s SXSW screening may still be a few weeks away but director Gareth Evans is working on the script for The Raid 2: Retaliation. While he admits the title isn’t set yet, he’s hoping to start shooting early next year. For all things Raid you can check out the film’s blog.
Next up, we head over to Geek Tyrant to discover a fan-made poster for upcoming British horror film The Addicted. I love horror films as much as the next guy and this one wasn’t even on my radar. It certainly is now. While I’m not totally in love with the poster, I do love the idea that in our internet connected culture fan art has lots of opportunities, not just to be seen, but to actually be used in film marketing. The filmmakers liked this poster so much that they decided to use it. Congrats to the artist!
And last but certainly not least, IMDb has a new UK trailer for Fantastic Fest hit Headhunters. The film is great, a fast-paced dark comedy slash thriller that’s just a ton of fun. It can’t hit American shores soon enough. You can check out the IMDB exclusive here, but or check out more exposition in the earlier trailer down below: